By Toryuu and hamm. Released in Japan as “Kimo Ota Mob Yōhei wa, Mi no Hodo o Wakimaeru” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Josh DM.
This was a stronger volume of Dorky NPC Merc than the third one, despite the fact that John is generally in far less danger throughout. I don’t really need him in peril here, though it is nice to occasionally see him struggle. But for the most part we read this to see him do a lot of cool space battle things, and then react to most of the aftermath with a sort of flat stare. It’s just the sort of guy he is. Aside from that, this series has one agenda, and it’s “rich arrogant nobles suck”, and it gives you a lot more of that here. That said, like most of these series which do not want to bite the hand that feeds them, it’s only the BAD nobles that are terrible and deserve death. The good nobles, like, say, the Empress who rules, are absolutely fine. THEY don’t treat people horribly. But fear not, that still leaves lots of terrible failnobles to go around.
After then events of the last book, John spends the start of this volume getting himself a new ship, which basically seems to be “my old ship only newer and with better radar and a better ability to store my doujinshi”. Unfortunately, the noble rebellion that’s been hinted at for a while finally starts, and martial law is declared as the mercenaries are all called in to fight for Empress and country. This goes better than you’d expect – the Empress is acting a bit less competent than she actually is to lure out bad nobles (I’m not sure if her “tits out” royal outfit is also meant to obfuscate, but I suspect it’s just part of the artist’s vibe), and the rebels think they have a mole when in fact he’s being a double agent and has betrayed them all. After this, a lot of now disgraced nobles turn to piracy, so John spends a lot of time tracking them down and basically doing his job for money.
As with Book 3, there’s less overt romance here. First Girl Fialka still seems to be the only one who has extended interaction with him, though her default tsundere state makes things difficult. And Second Girl (and default “childhood friend”) Scuna sees him carrying out an investigation by borrowing a prostitute’s bedroom and gets the wrong idea. The most interesting part of the book is the rebellion – we get the POV of a few noble families who are essentially being blackmailed into doing this, and there’s mention of a horrible financial penalty to all who participated but were coerced in the rebellion – though this too turns out to be a ploy by the Empress. I have a sneaking suspicion, especially after she and Fialka have a relatively friendly meetup at a noble reception, that the Empress is going to meet John pretty soon, and may end up dragging romance back into things. Over his dead body, of course.
This is never going to be required reading, but if you’re bored with fantasy isekais, and would like a bit of space opera that manages to avoid being a misogynistic hellhole, this is a good choice.
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